Husband and I got away for a long weekend in Ottawa recently. We had a blast exploring this gorgeous little town. I'll be sharing some of the pictures that I took with you later this month. What a beautiful, walkable city Ottawa is!
We had a new Wegman's open up not far from us. We even got brave enough to try some new produce. While I'm not a fan of the little melon that tasted like a sweet little cucumber, it wasn't a horrible experience!
This month has been busy beyond words!
But, on to the momentous task at hand - checking in on my 2016 resolutions! I started making my resolutions public a couple of years ago. I find that by making them public, and coming back and checking in on them once a month, I actually do a better job of holding myself accountable!
2016 Resolutions:
1) Remodel the Hall Bathroom
Silly girl. Third year in a row this has been on my list. I'm still not certain this is going to happen this year. Our kitchen became a priority this year, and now that we've started it, we need to finish the final touches so that it's not coming back to haunt me in a couple of years!
Middle child has informed us that he's hoping to move back in with us when he graduates in May, and to stay with us until he builds up a decent down payment for a house. So, fixing up this bathroom now has a target date: APRIL 2017. We'll have to work within the confines of the budget of whatever we have saved up to that point in time come March.
2) Improve My Health
Looking beyond the numbers on the scale, I am going after the big picture numbers that add up to an overall look at my body chemistry and how my body is functioning as a system. This led me to three separate categories:
My goal for the year was to lose a total of three inches. That took longer than I thought it would! Eight months to lose three inches. I'm happy to see those inches come off! For now, I am content. Those were 3 very hard inches to lose!
YES!! 120/60! No lecture from the doctor this year, instead I got a hearty "Keep up the good work!"
This time last year, my blood pressure was at 140/80. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!
c) Go Down at Least One Clothing Size.
At least one. At least two. I had to go buy pants earlier this month. I haven't worn my jeans or work pants since last spring. They literally fell off when I put my cell phone in my pocket. The hard work of the last year has paid off! I bought pants in the regular section of the store!!!! Even better? No elastic waist on these babies! Now, the nice to have problem - building up a professional wardrobe. Nice problem to have!
3) Restart my Vegetable Garden
Due to a very wet spring and a hideous ant problem, no vegetable garden got up and going this year. I really need to spend some serious time thinking about this for next year.
4) Learn to Pressure Can
SO, we have a glass top stove. Pressure canners do not work on a glass top stove because they can't consistently keep the temperature up high enough. This one will be a wash. Another epic fail. If I ever do put in an outdoor kitchen, I'm going to make certain I have a propane or gas stove so that I can pressure can - and I'll be able to do it outside and keep the heat out of the house.
5) Daughter's Quilt
This is not going as planned AT ALL. I had the bandanas cut out, I had the sashing cut out, and I was laying out the blocks when daughter walked through and saw the layout. She nixed several of the squares, and then went out and bought other fabric and cut it down to size for me to use. OK, she kept everything in the spirit of what I was going to do - the pink John Deere fabric, the Cow print square, the cartoony cat square.... It's just not the original plan that I had. It does still represent the things she was passionate about when she was growing up, though. So, for now, the squares are in a pile, and she is playing with the layout of the squares. I sincerely hope to have the top sewn together by the end of the month.
The kids did this for me when they were all home the weekend after Mother's Day. Thanks guys!
4 or 5 days every week. Even better, I'm now keeping a hard copy
journal with me when I go.I get to visibly see my progress every time I work out. It's an excellent motivator!
Originally, the goal was to clean out 23 things a month. Then I changed it to 23 things a week. For the entire 52 weeks of the year, that would have required me to get rid of 1196 things for the year. I met that goal in May.
I did get rid of a lot of stuff in the basement this month. We had a water leak (Surprise! Another issue in this house of horrors.) I threw out two big black plastic garbage bags full of wet stuff, and I sorted through boxes of toys that the kids had when they were little. The Lincoln Logs have all been tracked down, taken outside and hosed off, and are now residing in a big plastic bin. I'm currently working on tracking down all of the Playmobil toys.
Thank God I did this, both in February and in March. It has literally saved our asses as things continue to break and fall apart at an alarming rate. I originally found this challenge on the Frugal, Debt Free Life Blog. Bless your heart, Lydia. Because of this challenge, we have not yet gone down the rabbit hole of massive credit card debt with the huge expenses we've had in 2016: 1 abscessed tooth requiring a root canal. 1 crown for said tooth. The van needing huge repairs not once but TWICE, (once for the a/c, once because it just stopped working late at night when husband was on his way home from choir practice.), AND 1 leaking, moldy mess under the kitchen sink.
Niagara Falls! We spent time on both the Canadian and U.S. side of the Falls. I loved Niagara State Park. If you ever have time to go, make a point of heading to the state park and walking the perimeter trail around the island. It is absolutely gorgeous!
I need to catch up. I know I had years that I didn't do this. I went through all of the albums and found the years that I have not yet finished. These are the years I am in search of:
2009
As of now, all I need to do is work on the album from our trip to Niagara Falls. It's been years since I've been this caught up!
13) Walk or Bike a portion of at least 6 Rail Trails
Does the Rideau Canal in Ontario count? I don't think it's an official Rail Trail, but it is alongside a canal, and at one time, there were rail tracks nearby. It's officially a World Heritage site, so I'm going to add it. We hiked a good 10 miles of it while we were in Ottawa! Such a beautiful place!
 |
| A Lime Kiln on the NCR Trail. |
2) Rideau Canal
14) Pay off
The big debt is gone. It's nice to have one monkey off my back!
The payments on the smaller debt have accelerated. My goal is to have this paid off by December, but it very well might be Feb. or March of 2017 due to the extenuating circumstances we've had this year.
I nicely fixed up the recipe tab so that it is easy to find recipes that I've posted on here before. For me, this is my online recipe book. Some of the recipes are my own. Some, I post direct links to other sites. You might or might not choose to use it, but I use it on a pretty regular basis, and I've found out that one of the boys does, too. He likes the fact that most of what I've listed is food he already loves and that everything is fairly easy to make and budget conscious. (Hey Kiddo! Glad you stopped by for a while! Call your mother sometime. She'd really like to hear from you!)
How are you doing on your goals this year?
No comments:
Post a Comment